"We explore a topic our listeners have called out as a passionate force and a connector across all kinds of boundaries in American culture: running. Not just as exercise, or as a merely physical pursuit, but running as a source of bonding between parents and children and friends; running as an interplay between competition and contemplation; running and body image and survival and healing."

talk to her

It has been said (many times) that the most beautiful ballets are the ones that makes us forget the weight of the dancers’ bodies. With Pina Bausch, on the contrary, dance becomes a vehicle of celebration of this weight in its interaction with itself, the others’ and the environment. Her work is used beautifully in Hable con Ella by Pedro Almodóvar with that idea in mind, the dance segments in the film beautifully reflect the aesthetic rhythm and language of the story. I really recommend watching it and if it is of interest this essay is a good read too.

I started an Instagram account called @theunsungheroines and shared a women’s story daily. Stories about women disqualified from tennis tournaments because of the color of their skin. Women who changed their physical appearances to pass as men so they could stand up to bat and hit balls into the outfield. The first black woman to win a gold medal who returned home and was congratulated publicly by the white mayor, but would not shake her hand, because “That’s just the way it was at that time.” I don’t think I quite understood the absence of women’s stories when I was a kid. It’s not until I started this project that I, someone that labels themselves a proud feminist came to the uncomfortable realization that women’s stories have always been there: they just were not getting the same sort of soap box as the guys . I encourage ANYONE to send along stories about women that did what they loved to do, play the game. 

— Molly Schiot

As you may well have worked out I LOVE a good movement story, so I heartily recommend heading over to this project from Molly Schiot . Have a good look through the stories and wonderful pictures on her Instagram page @theunsungheroines and if you have a story of your own to share submit it through her website www.theunsungheroines.com It's a beautiful thing to contribute to our collective history through the art of story telling.

Image of Althea Gibson; the first African-American to play at, and win, Wimbledon and the US Open.